Museum Collection

The National Mining Museum Scotland is the national coal mining museum for Scotland and cares for the Lady Victoria Colliery and the national coal mining collections. The collections at the museum comprise over 60,000 items, including objects, archive material, photographs and books.

The Museum’s object collection includes tools, safety equipment, lamps, models, clothing, trophies, geological specimens, banners and art. The BIG Stuff Tour allows visitors to see the Museum’s extensive collection of large mining objects, such as coal cutters, cages, and locomotives. The Museum has over 18,000 photographs in its archive, including underground scenes, surface images, aerial views of collieries, miners at work and play, gala days and village scenes. Nearly all of these photographs can be viewed on a touchscreen computer at the Museum.

The reference library at the National Mining Museum houses books, journals, trade catalogues and periodicals covering the history of the coal mining industry. The Museum’s archives also hold many original documents relating to Scottish Collieries, including those of the Lothian Coal Company.

The library is open to researchers, by appointment, on Thursdays, between 10am and 4pm. To make an appointment, or to access to other parts of the collections please contact the Keeper at keeper@nationalminingmuseum.com
Click on one of the links on the right to browse through a selection of items from our collections.

About Us

Welcome to National Mining Museum Scotland, a 5 Star visitor attraction and winner of the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions "Best Visitor Experience" Award in 2009 and 2013.

The museum provides a great day out for all ages! We're based at one of the finest surviving examples of a Victorian colliery in Europe, the Lady Victoria Colliery at Newtongrange, just nine miles south of Edinburgh.

Visitors to the museum will marvel at the sheer size of the place, be astounded by the engineering brilliance behind all the machinery and retrace the footsteps and struggles of the thousands of miners and their families before them.